JANNIK SINNER SUCCEEDS WHERE CARLOS ALCARAZ AND NOVAK DJOKOVIC FAILED TO REMAIN ON COURSE FOR US OPEN GLORY

The black sleeve that ran up the arm of Christopher O’Connell carried a small, white lightning bolt behind his right elbow.

Unfortunately, any hopes the Australian had of causing another shock this Labor Day weekend were dashed in devastating style by Jannik Sinner. Sometimes, it only strikes twice.

Arthur Ashe has become a graveyard of champions over the past couple of evenings - at least in the men’s draw of this US Open.

First Carlos Alcaraz and then Novak Djokovic. Both fell victim to seismic upsets. On consecutive nights. On Saturday, however the storm clouds cleared and on a still, sunny afternoon, Sinner saved himself from a similar fate.

The world No 1 cruised into round four with a 6-1, 6-4 6-2 victory over O’Connell. Sinner has had a turbulent couple of weeks – ever since it emerged that he had escaped a ban despite failing two drugs tests earlier this year.

But the 23-year-old Italian is now the overwhelming favorite to claim the final major of 2024. He began the year with victory at the Australian Open and his path to a second Grand Slam has now been cleared after Botic van de Zandschulp and Alexei Popyrin detonated a couple of bombs on the half of the draw.

The world No 1 has never gone beyond the quarter finals of the US Open. He won’t get many better chances than this - even if the omens weren’t all rosy heading into this third-round clash.

Just like Djokovic, Sinner was drawn against an Australian underdog. Just like Popyrin, O’Connell was looking to reach the fourth round of a major for the very first time.

If those parallels put a grain of doubt in Sinner’s mind, it didn’t show. The Italian raced into a 5-0 lead and closed out the first set inside half an hour. It was brutally one-sided.

O’Connell was recently nicknamed the ‘silent assassin’ by one of his peers and he certainly kept quiet on Arthur Ashe. The issue? He didn’t have the firepower to take out Sinner. The Italian simply outgunned and outsmarted the Australian.

There were flashes of resistance and even electricity. Particularly in set two, when O’Connell gained a foothold and played his part in a rally that brought this crowd to their feet.

Three times Sinner sent the ball high into the New York sky. Three times O’Connell saw his smashes repelled. The Italian held on long enough to turn the tide and set up a winner. But his shot dropped the wrong side of the line.

It was a rare moment of drama on an otherwise comfortable afternoon for Sinner, who broke early in all three sets and never gave O’Connell a sniff of an upset. The Australian wasn’t afforded a break point all afternoon.

Serena Williams was among the crowd on Arthur Ashe and down below, for once in recent days, the headline attraction stood firm.

2024-08-31T19:58:44Z dg43tfdfdgfd